Betsy DeVos

I’ve noticed lately that these United States are worried about the appointment of Betsy DeVos for Education Secretary. It appears that she has money, did not attend public schools, and did not send her children to public schools.
Rumor has it that she is also the devil, will have every student on vouchers, dances in the woods next to a boiling cauldron, uses Bing as her search engine, and makes chocolate chip cookies from the pre-made chub. We all get it–she’s going to ruin education. And, that certainly goes against the mantra of making America great again.
My simple question is, “Why do people care? Now?” Have you looked at our rankings in education? There’s the state-by-state ones; there’s the worldwide ones. The United States does not always fare very well in these. A simple Google search (no Bing for me) finds our country 14th in education, according to Pearson. IPSOS Mori finds us 2nd in the world, though–in ignorance. There’s a list for everything, but we have many countries ahead of us.
Is it Common Core? Too much testing? The same-old, same-old? Underpaid teachers with limited resources? This generation of kids too stupid? Has social media destroyed our ability to do anything without our phones? The inner city? Affluenza?
And, again, why do people suddenly care? When we were cutting teachers, and budgets, and shoving 40+ kids into a classroom–this happened for years. I had over 200 students more than once–schools were an absolute disaster. It kind of focused teachers and students to do a better job, but, crap, the sky was falling and taking education with it. No one seemed to care then, maybe because our test scores were still solid and caused no alarm. We lost really good teachers because of budget cuts and the layoff process of last in/first out.
Betsy DeVos sounds like a horrible pick for Education Secretary, but education comes from the home first. Vouchers sound like a horrible idea, but schools will just shut their doors on kids they don’t want. They used to do that when I taught at Long Beach Poly. Six thousand neighborhood kids wanted in, but only forty-four-hundred got in. The rest were shipped elsewhere. Good schools will find a way to bend the rules in their favor.
Here are the positive aspects that might come from DeVos–parents and community members might take a look at school as something more than daycare and be a bigger part of the education process. Also, perhaps a level of competition will make schools more attractive to a prospective student. As I have said forever, and write here–What is your brand?
You play with the cards you’re dealt and, if all the higher-echelon college-bound kids supposedly leave your school to attend neighboring ones (that’s a rumor of North High, that good kids are going elsewhere so they can attend better colleges), then you adapt and adjust.
I wish Betsy DeVos lots of luck. Rather than focusing on doing what we know is the right thing to do with students, I’m sure people will spend time criticizing her. Like our students, we like to take the easy way out.